It’s an inescapable reality – Oxford County is the Dairy Capital of Canada and boasts some of the most incredible historic facts pertaining to the production of high quality cheese.

Most living within the county and many outside the confines of the region know that the community of Ingersoll was the county’s cheese capital from the mid-1800s to early 1900s, packaging much of the county’s renowned cheddar.

It was home to the first cheese factory in Canada, established around 1840. In 1866 a giant block of cheese weighing 7,300 pounds (3,311 kilograms) was produced at the James Harris Cheese Factory and then exhibited in England and the United States at the New York State Fair in Saratoga.

During the 1800s there were 98 cheese factories in Oxford County, with the first cooperative cheese factory in Upper Canada located here.